


Coffee Cauldron

by andromedablacc (TheLittleGreenTypewriter)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Love Confessions, mentions of past infidelity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-06
Updated: 2017-09-06
Packaged: 2018-12-24 16:24:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12016560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLittleGreenTypewriter/pseuds/andromedablacc
Summary: Its been five years since Ginny finished Hogwarts, four since Luna left, and she's not really achieved anything except breaking Harry's heart. Now Luna's back maybe she'll finally fix some things that went wrong.





	Coffee Cauldron

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [hogwartshousesnet's](http://hogwartshousesnet.tumblr.com/) mini bang. The artwork created by [penpendeseraphine](https://penpendeseraphine.tumblr.com/) is [here](https://penpendeseraphine.tumblr.com/post/165046951935/hogwartshousesnet-mini-bang-event-my-fan-art#notes) and the original post is [here](https://andromedablacc.tumblr.com/post/165046748954/hogwartshousesnet-mini-bang-event-title-coffee)!

_The Coffee Cauldron_ always shut early on a Friday, and as Ginny handed out her last drink of the day with a worn smile she couldn’t help but let the dull ache of loneliness flare up beneath her ribs. When they’d first left Hogwarts, the Gang that Helped Save the World, as George had coined them on his earlier, better days, had went out for dinner every Friday without fail, but as time had ticked on, the others had started falling away.

Luna was first, getting an apprenticeship with the famous magizoologist Newt Scamander mere months after finishing school. She sent letters most months still though Ginny hadn’t seen the little owl that normally . Ginny missed Luna most of all, like a gnawing in her chest most of the time. She chose not to think about why she might feel like that, refused to think about that kiss the night before Luna had left.

Neville left next, leaping at the offer of a trainee teachers position at Hogwarts. To begin with, he always still apparated in from Hogsmeade for a drink after dinner, but as the years had passed and his responsibilities had piled up they saw him less and less. Tonight, he actually had very little to do, but he’d barely seen Hannah for months, so the pair were going out alone. Hannah smiled apologetically as they left the shop, Ginny locking the door behind them. Ginny smiled back, trying not to look quite so sad as she was, and the other woman apparated away, Ginny chose to take the long way home, walking and taking the tube to her tiny little flat on the other side of town that she supposedly shared with Harry.

Harry was always miraculously free and not at the same time. He would pop up perhaps one weekend in four for five minutes for a quick pint then would apparate away again to Merlin knows where. The general consensus was that this was because of some secret boyfriend or girlfriend since he’d came out as bi not long after Hogwarts. As they lived together, Ginny really should know who it was, but her flatmate was always in by himself on the rare occasions he was in at all. The current fore runner of the long standing bet of Harry’s secret partner was Oliver Wood, who Ginny knew he’d had a massive crush on throughout their early years at Hogwarts, though he hadn’t really realised it at the time. Harry had always kept quiet about it telling Ginny alone one drunken night back when he actually lived in their flat. Ginny herself was runner up, though quite how anyone thought that, she wasn’t sure. Ron’s guess was the most obscure, Draco Malfoy, and Ginny would have scoffed at the insanity of it had Ron not been Harry’s very best friend, and presumably the one he would confide in.

Well, either way, he certainly hadn’t confided in Ginny, which meant for not the first time in recent months on a Friday night, she was alone. As she shuffled onto the commuter train along with the hundreds of muggles and a woman she could have sworn was Luna, if she hadn’t been somewhere off on the other side of the world last time Ginny heard from her, she couldn’t help but stare at the group of young teenagers laughing at one end of the carriage and wish she too was 14 again, even if it meant she had to go through the hell that was her teen years again. At least then, she’d seen her friends.

She hardly ever saw Hermione now either. Hermione hadn’t ever actually gone anywhere, she still lived in the little flat in a muggle part of London with Ron and Crookshanks, but after promotion after promotion through the ministry meant she had an insane workload and was hardly ever free to hang out. Ron himself usualyl made it but he and George were away in Frankfurt at a ‘business weekend’ trying to expand Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes to the rest of Europe.

Going into the flat brought a small sense of relief. She might be alone, but at least she could relax. In the five years since the Battle of Hogwarts she hadn’t done much for herself, but she was on the reserve team for the Montrose Magpies which took up most of her evenings and left her exhausted. Just as she flicked her wand and turned on the kettle to make a soothing cup of tea, a small brightly coloured bird shot through an open window and stood patiently on the countertop before her, holding one blue leg aloft like an owl.

“Hello little thing,” she said to it softly. “Have you brought me a letter?”  
The bird squawked happily and shook its leg. The movement dislodged a tiny scrap of parchment from the piece of string died around its leg, sending it floating to the floor. Ginny bent to pick it up, gently stroking the little owl-like creature atop its head. It let out another squawk and started jumping up and down on the counter, barely able to contain its excitement. She unrolled the scrap, her brown eyes widening as she recognised the familiar handwriting.

‘Darling Ginny,’ Luna had written in her scrawl of a script. ‘I’m back. Where is everybody meeting tonight?’

Ginny dared not tell Luna that she had intended to spend the night alone in front of the TV Harry and Hermione had charmed to show Quidditch, and scrawled onto the back of the bit parchment, ‘The Leaky Cauldron. Be there at six.’ She tied the scrap back to the leg of the little bird and as soon as she tied the knot, it was gone, shooting back out her open window.

* * *

 The Leaky Cauldron was buzzing with people, the same as it was most nights, and Ginny had only just been able to sneak a table for two. She’d fussed far too long with her hair in front of the enchanted mirror that always told her how beautiful she looked, and barely managed to apparate in before six. Luna, as she’d expected, wasn’t there. The waitress came over, looking lovely but harassed, and Ginny ordered firewhiskey for Luna and a pint for herself.

Waiting for both the drinks and Luna, and trying to calm her screaming nerves, she watched the other occupants of the bar. A surprisingly large goblin stood before the bar itself, his head not quite clearing the table top and seemed to be trying to get the tall man serving him to give him some muggle drink Ginny had never heard of, and by the looks of it, neither had the barman. The goblin huffed and sighed and stormed away, and someone said, “hello Ginny,” softly as she began to laugh.

She stopped laughing immediately as she span around in her chair to see Luna sitting before her looking almost painfully lovely, sipping her firewhiskey. Her hair was loose and floating around her face. She smiled brightly as Ginny looked at her, a little dumbstruck, and asked, “Where is everyone else?”

The question pulled Ginny from her odd half-trance. “Oh, hardly anyone else comes anymore.”  
Ginny immediately wished she’d said it some other way from the way Luna’s happy expression crumpled into sadness. Ginny had no idea how she could fix it. “You’ve still got me though,” said with a slight shrug and a half-smile, her only offer. Still, Luna seemed to brighten slightly.

“You look lovely Ginny,” Luna said, and from Luna at least, Ginny knew she wasn’t just being kind.  
“Thank you,” she said. She wanted to tell Luna she looked wonderful too, that the sun had suited her in the way it lightened her hair even further and painted her skin a few shades darker. The expression Luna had had when she’d kissed her once three years ago held her tongue though, and instead she only smiled.  
“What brings you back to London?”

The conversation after that was surprisingly free and not nearly as awkward as Ginny had feared, despite herself. Talking to Luna was still easy, shockingly so, and she could still make Ginny laugh at the drop of her hat without even meaning to. By the end of the night, Ginny could feel the rush of alcohol and Luna’s laugh going to her head and she knew if she didn’t get away soon she’s do something stupid. Again.

“How long are you staying for?” Ginny finally let herself ask. She’d been avoiding the question all night, unsure whether she wanted the answer to be _forever_ or _just tonight_.  
“I don’t know,” Luna said eventually, her expression thoughtful. “My apprenticeship is finished, Rolf and I broke up. I just want to spend some time with my friends for a while.”  
Ginny grinned, and leaned forward to kiss her on the cheek in a ridiculous surge of adrenaline. “Well, owl me when you next want to see me. I’m free Friday evenings and Sunday mornings.”  
Luna promised she would with a small smile, and Ginny apparated away feeling much happier than she had in a while.

* * *

 The next week passed by in somewhat of a blur. Luna couldn’t make Sunday morning, so Ginny went to brunch with George and Angelina and pretended not to find it frighteningly weird that her brother was now dating her dead brother’s ex. She’d been assured plenty of times that Fred and Angelina hadn’t even been together, not really, but still. They seemed happy though, so Ginny kept her mouth shut and kept smiling. It’d been years since George had seemed anything close to contented, and though he still avoided mirrors of all kinds, he was laughing again, and it didn’t seem quite so forced.

Luna did, however, owl her every single day, and Ginny found herself excited to leave work and Quidditch practise to see that Luna had sent her, even laying off her endless pestering of her couch as to when, exactly, she was going to be made a full member of the team. As soon as she was showered and changed, she’d look for the brightly coloured bird Luna now used instead of an owl. In one such letter, Luna informed her it was called a _Fwooper,_ and she’d named it Icarus. She hatched it from an egg when she was with the Scamanders in Nigeria, and it had chosen her as its mother, and thus followed her everywhere, letting her use him in place of an owl.

Ginny watched as the clock crawled by from four o’clock onwards, the infernal thing whizzing forward and then switching back every five minutes to try and confuse her. She was debating smashing the thing when a familiar voice said, “May I have a green tea please?”  
She grinned giddily before she even turned around and shifted around to find the green tea, trying to hide her smile. Once she’d quite controlled herself, she turned to face Luna and handed her the steaming tea. Luna didn’t smile, instead her features settled into something like hurt.

“Are you alright?” Ginny asked softly, waving the hand that offered up the correct change.  
Luna looked like for once she might not answer honestly, if at all, but eventually said, “You ignored me.”  
Ginny wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the very idea that she was at any time unaware of Luna’s presence around her, but managed, again, to contain herself. “I’m sorry.”  
Luna did smile at that and blew on her tea.

For a while, Ginny simply stared at her, still shocked deep down that Luna was even here after so long away, and drank in the sight of her in a soft blue jumper that was far too warm for the weather and very little else. She probably could have stood there all day, looking at her, had the next customer not came in and complained loudly about the speed of the service, or lack thereof.

With much grumbling from the customer that Ginny just knew would get back to the owner, she served him, and then the kind young woman after him that fancied Ginny a bit and always had the same order that she took with a wink, and then the old woman that came in every Friday but still had no idea who the staff were. All the while, she could feel Luna’s grey eyes watching her every move. The attention would have made her feel self-conscious, if she’d had time to think about it.

“Sorry!” she heard Hannah say as she handed out a stupidly complicated fake-coffee to none other than Blaise Zabini, who also winked at her as he took his coffee from her hand. “We’re closed now!”

Blaise bid Hannah goodbye as he sneaked out the door, giving the three of them a little wave and Hannah locked the door behind him.

Ginny ripped off her apron and called over to Luna, “We won’t be long, we’ve just got to lock up!”  
“You two go,” Hannah said before Luna got a chance to reply. “It’ll only take me a few minutes, and Neville is meeting me here.”  
Luna didn’t say anything, so Ginny grinned at Hannah, kissed her on the cheek and shoved her own set of keys into her pocket. “Thanks Hannah. See you in five minutes.”

She reached for Luna’s hand and the pair whisked out of the door onto Diagon Alley.

* * *

 Predictably, everyone showed up that Friday night. Harry even lasted the whole night, for possibly the first time in years. It was nice to see them all but did mean, however, that Ginny barely got to speak to Luna at all, and spent most of the night talking to Neville, who, unlike the rest of them, had also already seen Luna since she’d arrived back.

They chit chatted for a while, in a conversation that revealed Ginny was the only person who Luna had kept in any sort of regular contact with over the years, the knowledge making Ginny blush and happy, confused little butterflies fluttering around in her tummy, before the conversation started on what Ginny was actually doing with her life.

“How’s Quidditch going?” he asked as the rest of the gang hovered around Luna, the question sounding purposefully light hearted.  
“Okay,” Ginny said.

For months, possibly years, she’s been avoiding the ‘how’s quidditch going’ conversation, because the truth of it was, it wasn’t going anywhere. The Montrose Magpies had been her team for years, ever since when she was six and Ron had told her she wasn’t allowed to like the Chudley Cannons, since they were his team. Three years of constant training without gaining anything, however, had left her tired and drained. Oliver, who’d joined the team just months before her and was already a full time player when she started playing with them, had told her over and over again to try out for other teams. It felt like a betrayal, but the last time she played, the Holyhead Harpies manager had told her there was a place for her on her team in a Seeker or Chaser position at any time. For weeks after, she’d debating owling her, but in the end too much time had passed, and instead she stayed unsatisfied where she was.

Neville looked at her, his eyes filled with a strange mix of pity and frustration, but let the topic go, and instead told her about his life at Hogwarts.  
“The hours are so long,” he said. It should be a complaint, Ginny thought, but Neville sounded quite happy about it. “And some of the students are a nightmare. But some of them just need that little push you know? They just need to find their niche, like I did. A girl from last year’s leavers came to visit me last week, she got an O in Herbology NEWT after barely passing her OWL. I was so proud of her.”  
She knew what he was doing, encouraging her to do something with her life. Still, Ginny smiled softly. For years, Neville had been so unhappy. Not truly sad, but never truly happy either. It made her heart warm to hear him so content. Hannah, Ginny thought, might have a lot more to do with that than either of them realised.

* * *

 At last, people started yawning in earnest, and after all the last drinks were finished, they started heading home in twos and threes.

“I’m coming to the game tomorrow,” Luna told her, catching her on her way out the door,  
“I probably won’t even play,” she said. Luna only smiled and kissed her on the cheek.  
“You might.”

Luna left, apparating away to wherever she was staying, since she still hadn’t told anyone, and Harry followed Ginny out the door. They walked mostly in silence to the underground, and had no choice but to be quiet on the busy train other than to scream at each other, and were naturally quiet again until they both collapsed down onto the sofa in the living room.

“I didn’t expect you to come home,” Ginny found herself saying without really meaning to. After they’d broken up, it had been easier just to stay in the same flat, Ginny simply moving her things into their spare room, but they weren’t really close friends anymore. She missed him, even if it had been all her fault.  
Harry didn’t answer the question. “Did you ever tell anyone else about Luna?”

They had never talked about that night with Luna, the night Ginny tried never to think about, the night that destroyed their relationship with one little action. The relationship had been in shambles long before that, but that night was the final nail in its coffin.

“No,” she said. No one but she and Luna knew. Harry knew that they’d kissed, yes, that Ginny had been cut up about it. She’d never told him anything more.  
“You loved her didn’t you?” Harry asked, not looking at her, instead looking up at the ceiling. “Did you tell her?”  
“Yes,” Ginny admitted finally, and felt a terrible weight lift off her shoulders. “And yes.”  
He looked at her then, his green eyes surprisingly clear. “And she didn’t love you.”  
Ginny said nothing to that, even as her heart squeezed so painfully for a moment she felt she might just die. She hadn’t noticed she was crying until Harry bundled her up in his arms and made soft soothing noises. He was good at this, always had been good at comfort, despite never getting any when he was growing up.  
“You love her still,” he said as she calmed down, still snuggled into his warmth.  
She nodded. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”  
He didn’t say anything now either, simply rubbed small circles into her back the way he knew she liked.

They stayed like that for a while until Harry yawned so wide Ginny half thought his jaw might fall off and she pestered him into going to bed.

“Who do you love now?” she asked as he started to shut his bedroom door.  
He didn’t look back. “Draco.”

* * *

 Flying, more than anything, made her head clear. Despite telling everyone who would listen not to come, all of her friends did, which was good, since their ordinary Seeker, and their reserve Seeker were both overcome with vomiting within minutes of the game starting, and Ginny was called up to play. Oliver cheered loudly as she made her way onto the pitch and she could have sworn she saw Neville wink at her as she mounted her broom. They were playing the Wigtown Wanderers who, whilst an excellent team in their own right, weren’t nearly as good as the Magpies, and their team captain seemed desperate to keep their winning streak.

Ginny flew high above the rest of the players, waiting for the golden snitch to come fluttering by. Or at least for the other Seeker to notice it and give chase. She didn’t much like playing Seeker, for all she was good at it; she felt too detached from the rest of the game, from the ground, from the earth itself. She felt, sometimes, as if, if she wasn’t paying enough attention, she might just float away.

Today, she didn’t feel much like floating away, instead doing her best not to think about Harry or Luna or how happy Neville was, and concentrate on the game at hand. She watched as the Wanderers tried, and failed, to score five times and Oliver simply swatted the Quaffles away as if they were flies. The Magpies scored then, the crowd roaring with joy before the Magpies scored twice in a row. Three more times the Magpies scored and Ginny let herself fall enough to still feel part of the game when the fans screamed and whistled and sang their praises. It was when she was down there that she saw the snitch, zooming towards the manager of the Holyhead Harpies at great haste. Ginny followed.

Swooping past various bats and balls and brooms, she chased the Snitch like her life depended on it. Perhaps her career did. She watched out the corner of her eye as the Wanderers Seeker caught onto her tail, but she was too close. For the last few feet, Ginny stretched out her hand and within seconds the tiny golden ball was enclosed in her palm and she had stopped dead in the air, the tip on her broom merely inches from the Harpies manager’s face.

“11 o’clock on Tuesday morning. Meet with me at our training grounds if these idiots don’t have you on their permanent team. Meet with me even if they do.”

* * *

 Luna kissed her almost as soon as she got out of the changing rooms, right in front of everyone, without any notice at all. Completely taken by surprise, Ginny melted against Luna’s lips without even thinking about it, curling her hands in blonde hair and holding her face to hers. It was glorious, better than kissing anyone else, better than when Luna had been drunk and lovely and Ginny had been too, and Luna had been leaving in the morning and Ginny loved her and couldn’t stand her to go away so she’d kissed her, despite Harry and what everyone else would think and Luna had left anyway. It could only have lasted half a minute, but when Luna pulled away, her friends were silent and staring. Luna was still smiling up at her, her face so close her breath tickled Ginny’s, and with gut wrenching confusion, Ginny apparated away.

Luna didn’t follow.

* * *

 Harry didn’t come back to the flat, their previous weekend together obviously a fluke. Ginny called in sick for training with the Magpies, and then for her shift at the _Coffee Cauldron,_ prepared herself for her meeting with the Harpies manager, and generally avoided everyone she knew. Especially Luna, who still hadn’t contacted her at all.

The rest of the team were already playing when she got there at 10 to 11, swooping around. They were good, Ginny observed, not excellent, not like the Magpies, but good. Good enough for her to play for. The manager was watching them too, and watching Ginny as they watched them.

“They could do with some improvement,” she said as Ginny came over, her eyes still trained on her players. “A better middle Chaser would do them the world of good.”  
“What’s wrong with the one you have?” Ginny asked, watching the woman, who did look as if she might be close to retiring age, belt down the pitch and throw her Quaffle straight into the Keeper’s hands.  
“She’s close to retiring.” Ginny nodded. “And you’re better.”

The meeting was quick, lasting only half an hour. The manager offered her a place on the normal team as their middle Chaser, phasing out the old one with her being full time within three months, and a significant pay rise. She would be part of a team that wasn’t at their peak yet, but were getting there, and would get there faster with her on the team. Ginny swallowed her confusion at her betrayal of the Magpies, and accepted.

* * *

 Her boss at the Montrose Magpies took the news surprisingly well.  
“You’re an amazing player Ginny,” he said, patting her on the shoulder. “I wish we could have given you a position sooner.”

Her boss at the _Coffee Cauldron_ only asked for her uniform back, and for free tickets to her next game. When she told him that wasn’t up to her but she’d try, he appeared to attempt not to sneer, and shooed her out the door.

“I’ll miss you,” Hannah whispered on her way past, and grinned. Ginny grinned back.

Now, Ginny thought, she only had to sort out what was going on with her and Luna. That was going to take much longer than half an hour and a pat on the back.

Luna finally owled her three days later. It said, ‘I’m sorry. Meet me at your coffee shop at 2?’ Icarus flew around her living room for a good half an hour before she sent back her one worded reply.

* * *

 Luna was, for the first time ever, waiting for her when she arrived, looking decidedly nervous, and a little like she wanted to cry. Ginny tried to not let it show that she felt the same on her face, but Luna knew her too well.

“I’m sorry for kissing you the other day,” she said as Ginny sat, sliding her over a huge mug of coffee, half cream, 3 sugars, just how Ginny liked it. “Well,” she corrected herself when Ginny only sipped her coffee, “I’m not sorry for kissing you. I’m sorry I did it then, without warning.”  
“Do you like me, Luna?” Ginny asked. She was scared of the answer, really. When Luna first came back, she didn’t want to know the answer, both options scary and new.  
Luna smiled softly, like she was sad and ashamed. “I do.”  
“I love you,” Ginny admitted. “You broke my heart when you went away.”  
“I know. I wanted you to come with me. I thought you knew.”

Ginny didn’t know what to say to that. She’d wanted Luna to stay, more than anything, four years ago. The idea that Luna might want her to come had never even crossed her mind once.

“I didn’t even know if you and Harry were still together,” Luna continued. “I knew you loved him, but not like you used to.”

Guilt wracked Ginny like it always did whenever Harry was mentioned. What she’d done to Harry had been wrong, and unfair. If she’d only just told him before, maybe none of them would be in this mess. Maybe she’d have travelled the world with Luna and Harry wouldn’t be sneaking around with Draco bloody Malfoy and they’d all have been as happy as Neville. Hopefully they would have been.

“It’s different,” Ginny said. “He’s like my brother, but not like Ron or George or Charlie. It’s hard to explain.”  
“I realised that after I left,” Luna said. “I should have told you I loved you then.”

Ginny’s heart leapt into her mouth. They were the words she’d hoped to hear years ago in a muggle bar in a muggle bar of town with a very non-muggle girl kissing her back like she was on fire and Ginny’s mouth was her only access to water.

Luna seemed to know the question in Ginny’s eyes before she voice it. “I still love you now.”

Ginny leaned across the table and kissed her. Kissed her for all she was worth. And if that kiss that night had been the best kiss ever, and if that kiss just days ago had been better, this one made them all float away as little more that sparks in a set of fireworks. Because now she knew.

“Don’t go away again without me,” she breathed in between kisses. They’d somehow ended up in her flat, the coffees gone.  
“I won’t.”

* * *

 When they both lay sated on the floor, Ginny curled into Luna, their legs tangled together in a confusing mess of limbs, a question popped into Ginny’s mind that she couldn’t help but ask.  
“Where do you live just now?”  
“Oh, with Draco Malfoy,” Luna said as Ginny burst out laughing. “You know he’s seeing Harry?”

* * *

 At their next Friday evening meet up, everyone showed up again to congratulate Ginny on her new job.

“I can’t believe you left me all alone in the _Coffee Cauldron_ ,” Hannah complained as Ginny sat down, her fingers twined with Luna’s.  
“We should buy the _Leaky Cauldron,_ ” Neville said from bedside her, like it was the only obvious answer. Hannah looked shocked. At seeing her expression, Neville added, “you know it’s up for sale.”

“Well done Gin!” Ron shouted as he came in. His brown eyes, so like Ginny’s clocked onto her hand in Luna’s surprisingly quickly, and he shouted, “Well done on that too!” Without missing a beat.  
“Thank you Ron,” Luna said, sounding perfectly genuine and completely unsurprised.

Ron beamed at her, stopping short when Harry walked in, followed closely by a taller man with platinum blonde hair, whispering into Harry’s ear. The whole group waiting in silence as Harry walked over, rolling his eyes at the man, and sat down at their table.

“Evening,” he said, not sounding nervous in the slightest, which he probably should have been. “You all remember Draco?” As if they could possibly forget.  
They all nodded, most of them looking rather appalled except Luna, Ginny and Ron, the latter of whom had a supremely smug expression on his face.  
“He’s my boyfriend.”

Ginny had expected a few moments of awkward silence, but instead Ron crowd like some teenage boy and demanded payment immediately. Draco both flushed a deep pink and managed to look furious. Harry only laughed and ordered two butterbeers when the waitress came over.

Luna pulled Ginny closer, completely unnoticed by everyone who were all too busy telling Ron he was a dirty cheat. “Aren’t they cute?” she whispered in her ear, her lips brushing the shell.  
“Yeah,” Ginny whispered back, and turned to kiss her girlfriend she’d waited four years for.


End file.
